


Instability Brothers

by KatsukiSin



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Abduction, Abusive Naomi (Supernatural), Balthazar & Castiel Friendship (Supernatural), Castiel and Gabriel are Siblings (Supernatural), Castiel meets Balthazar, Escape Plans, Fledgling Balthazar (Supernatural), Fledgling Castiel (Supernatural), Gabriel (Mentioned) - Freeform, Gen, Heaven, Naomi (mentioned) - Freeform, Naomi Being an Asshole (Supernatural), Pre-Series Castiel (Supernatural), Re-Education
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:09:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26715001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatsukiSin/pseuds/KatsukiSin
Summary: After being abducted for unknown reasons, Castiel meets another kidnapped angel. The two try to escape their captors.
Relationships: Balthazar & Castiel (Supernatural)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	Instability Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger warnings: abduction, blood, injuries, torture mentions&aftermath

Castiel threw himself at the door as it closed behind him. There was a wail in the air as he attacked the door: pounding, scratching, ramming his shoulder into the surface, but it was all in vain. It wasn't until he slumped against the wall, exhausted and in pain, that he realized the horrible wail was his own.

"Are you done now?"

Castiel whirled around so fast that his wings slammed against the wall. He bit back a whimper; his wings had already been in enough pain from the metal circlets which had been driven into his wings, pinning them together, useless.

The room was small. It was only about twice the width of the doorway, with half of the space taken up by a bunk bed shoved to the left. The bunk bed managed to touch all three walls, so there was only a narrow walkway in front of the door.

An angel was looking down at Cas from the top bunk. "You can scream all you bloody like," he said. "It won't do any good. In fact, you keep it up, you'll just make the guards angry."

Rolling his shoulders in an attempt to alleviate his wings, Castiel was brutally reminded of just how sore his body was. “Out there, in-in the corridor. There were so many doors. They could lock up every fledgling in Heaven. But-- why? I don’t understand.”

“Yes, you do. Think,” the angel demanded.

Castiel paused, complying. “This has to do with Lucifer. This is a warning not to- not to Fall.”

The angel laughed. It wasn’t a nice sound. Instead, it was so full of bitterness that Castiel winced. “Oh, this is no slap on the wrist, _brother._ ” The angel spat the word out like a vile insult. “This is re-education. Obedience school. This is where we get purged of free will so there’ll be no more Lucifers, and no more offending Daddy Dearest. They think maybe He’ll come back, if we behave well enough.”

The idea felt so wrong. Words of denial weighed heavily on Castiel’s tongue, but Cas had no better explanation for why he had been ripped away from his big brother, why his wings had been bound together, why his claws had been clipped until his hands bled.

“Looking so lost already? This is just the beginning, newbie.”

“The beginning of what?” Cas asked, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

“Of an army,” the angel sneered. “A mindlessly obedient army of brainwashed youth.”

“And if we aren’t obedient? What happens then?”

The angel gave Cas an odd look. Castiel interpreted it as _you really haven’t figured it out yet?_ The angel jumped off the side of the bunk, landing gracefully on his feet. Then the angel turned around, leaving Cas fighting the urge to vomit.

It took him a moment to understand what he was looking at. At first, he thought it was some brown, glistening lump extending from the angel’s back. In a way, that was true. The other’s wings were completely featherless. Skin had been torn off in places and the appendages were covered in blood, dry and fresh. The skin still left was covered in bruises and cuts. And then there were the two metal rings piercing the skin, muscle, perhaps even the bone, of the elbow and wrist joints and pinning the wings together. The skin around the circles was red weeping pus, obviously infected.

“I’m so sorry,” Cas whispered as the angel turned to face him once more.

“Don’t be. The punishment could have been so much worse.” The other, confusingly, raised a hand to cover one eye in an absent-minded movement.

Castiel had so many questions. What had this angel been punished for? How could his brothers and sisters allow, let alone _inflict_ , such a horrid punishment? How could God? Where was his big brother? Hadn’t Gabriel noticed he was missing yet?

Cas didn’t voice those questions. It wasn’t the time for any of that; more important matters were at hand.

“We have to put a stop to this,” Castiel muttered. “No one here deserves to be tortured like this. And when our siblings who trapped us here come to their senses, they will be horrified at what they’ve done. The guilt could destroy them. We can’t let it get any worse.”

“We should stop the people torturing us?” The angel gave a mock gasp. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Castiel glared. “You’re not being very productive.”

“I’m being just as productive as the asshole sitting around, stating the obvious without forming any real plan,” the angel huffed.

“I’m working on it!” Castiel interjected. He looked about the room desperately, but there was nothing to provide a foolproof escape, not even a window. Cas supposed they could throw blankets over the heads of whatever guards came to get them and get past while they were distracted. Actually… Cas narrowed his eyes at the metal-framed bed. If they could break off one of the support bars, get it sharp enough… but Castiel didn’t like the idea of injuring any of his brethren, even if it provided an escape.

“You must be seriously mentally unstable if you think you can waltz in here and save the day with a perfect escape plan like some bloody hero.”

Cas’ eyes widened. “Unstable?”

“Yes, unstable. Are you hard of hearing now, too?”

Cas looked at his hands, which were still bleeding from having his claws roughly cut. “They didn’t hinder my Grace.”

Sighing, the other angel leaned his shoulder against the wall, careful not to jostle his wings. “Of course not. We’re young. Our Graces are unstable, and even if they weren’t, none of us really know how to use them to defend ourselves. There’d be no point.”

Castiel smiled. He turned back to the door and dragged his hands across it, leaving bloody trails in their wake.

“What in the archangels’ names do you think you’re doing?” The other asked. Cas tried not to laugh at the incredulousness and confusion poorly hidden behind the anger in his tone.

“Right now, I’m thinking that instability is our friend,” Cas paused, knowing the vague answer would rile up the other angel.

“Oh, great. They’ve already driven you insane, haven’t they?”

“These things I’m drawing, they’re called runes of instability. If I do this correctly, they should tear up and tangle the wavelengths that make up this door.” Cas turned, giving the other a pointed look. “Eventually, either this won’t be a door anymore, or we’ll be able to slip between the mangled wavelengths.”

Cas was pleased to see the utterly shocked look on the other angel’s face. His jaw had even dropped.

“But-But the guards!” The other said, flustered. “They’ll see the door falling apart! On the slim fucking chance that they don’t, new fledglings are being brought in, so there are even more guards than usual. We’d never get past them all!”

Castiel shook his head. “As of now, you can only see the damage on this side of the door. When someone comes in to get us, they’ll open the door, and the damaged side will be hidden against the wall. And this spellwork is going to take time and reapplication. Hopefully, by the time the door is unstable enough for us to escape, your wings will be healed, and there won’t be as many guards, and we’ll have a clear escape route.”

“How do you even know all of this?”

Castiel shrugged, ignoring the accusation in the other's voice. He was likely just frustrated. Finishing the runes, Cas stepped back and watched the blood glow blue before disappearing completely. “My pledge taught me. We were pulling a prank on someone. He didn’t teach me the runework that would immediately destroy the door, but we’ll have to make do.” Cas smiled at the memory of Gabriel and him, pledge and charge, pulling a prank on Michael, but the smile faded as Cas remembered that Gabe wasn’t here.

The other angel was quiet for a moment, looking Castiel up and down. “Maybe I misjudged you. Maybe you’re not as naive and incompetent as I thought.”

“And maybe you’re not as brash and rude as I thought.”

The other angel laughed, and this time it wasn’t bitter; this time it was amused and delighted, and the sound made Cas relax some.

The angel ran his hand under the top bunk. There must have been something sharp hidden there, for the angel’s hand came back bleeding. The angel extended his bleeding hand forward. “I like you. You’re actually bloody interesting. Call me Balthazar.”

Castiel took the angel’s-- Balthazar’s hand, watching in fascination as the blood on both their hands met. “My name’s Castiel.”

“No wonder you seemed familiar. You’re Gabriel’s charge.”

Cas nodded.

“Sorry for your loss, then.”

Everything stopped. Something sharp and painful seemed to rip through his Grace. “Gabriel’s-”

“No!” Balthazar’s eyes widened. “God, no. I was talking about Lucifer. I assume you were close?”

Cas closed his eyes at the reminder of Lucifer’s banishment. It had happened long enough ago for the sharp pang of loss to turn into a dull ache, but it still hurt, especially when the grief was still so plain in Gabriel’s eyes every time Castiel looked at his pledge. “I suppose you could say that,” Cas said softly.

Balthazar pulled away slowly. “How about you teach me those runes, eh?”

“Of course.”

Balthazar punched Castiel in the arm. “You and me, eh? The Instability Brothers against the world. Or, in this case, Naomi’s School for Wayward Youth.”

Castiel giggled, despite how the punch had jarred his shoulder. “Yeah. Us against the world.”


End file.
